The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal has given the go-ahead to MTNL for recovering Rs 8.7 crore from Data Access.
The tribunal dismissed the petition of Data Access alleging it had been wrongly charged the amount in violation of the terms of interconnect agreement.
The tribunal not only dismissed the petition on which it had
earlier restrained MTNL from recovering the dues, but also directed the defaulting company to pay an interest of 10.2 per cent per cent on the amount till its recovery.
"Since we have dismissed the petition, the respondent (MTNL) would also be entitled to interest for a period from January 20, 2003 till recovery at the rate of 10.2 per cent per annum," the order said.
Under the interconnect agreement signed between the two companies, it had been agreed that starting from the fourth month of the start of service, the petitioner would guarantee the handover of at least 20 million minutes of incoming traffic volume to MTNL.
The dispute centered on the interpretation of the term incoming traffic.'
Data Access argued that incoming traffic included traffic terminating with MTNL as well as traffic transiting through its network and terminating with other service providers.
MTNL, however, said the interconnect agreement clearly stated that incoming traffic, in the context of the minimum guarantee clause, meant traffic that came into the network of MTNL and terminated within the network.